This invention relates to a method and system for providing telecommunications services, and even more particularly relates to a dialed digit unlock method and system for an analog wireline telecommunications environment.
Dialing telephone digits is a daily activity for most people. As more and more people subscribe to telephone service, longer and longer numbers are dialed to differentiate subscriber lines. For example, in the past, a seven digit number (XXX-XXXX) may have been enough to differentiate subscriber lines within a calling area. However, as more subscriber lines are added within a calling area, more digits have been needed to differentiate subscriber lines. For example, a ten digit number (XXX-XXX-XXXX) is often needed to differentiate subscriber lines even within a local calling area. As more digits are required for dialing (even for local dialing), more misdialing occurs. Oftentimes, a calling party will enter a few numbers of the called party""s number and then realize that they have entered an incorrect digit. In the wireline environment, there is typically no way to correct these erroneous digits. The calling party must hang up, listen for a new dial tone and redial the called party"" number. Sometimes, when trying to hang up, a calling party will instead only flash their telephone line causing further misdialing and further frustration.
With wireless telephones, a clear key may be used to correct a digit if it has been incorrectly entered. However, for an analog wireline telecommunications environment, phones are not equipped with such clear keys. In an analog wireline telecommunications environment, it is time-consuming and annoying when users make a mistake after entering multiple digits of a telephone number and then must redial the entire telephone number. Thus, there is a need for an analog dialed digit unlock method and system.
In one embodiment, the invention is a method and system for providing a dialed digit unlock and edit feature for an analog telephone connected to an advanced intelligent network (AIN) wireline network is disclosed. The analog telephone sends at least one digit of a called party number to an originating central office. The originating central office determines whether an initial address message (IAM) has been sent from the originating central office to a destination central office. If so, then the dialed digit unlock and edit feature is disabled. However, if the IAM has not been sent, then the originating central office determines whether a key to enable the dialed digit unlock and edit feature has been entered on the analog telephone. If the key has been entered, then the last digit(s) entered for the called party number are erased and the originating central office awaits a new digit(s) to be entered into the analog telephone.
These and other features, advantages, and aspects of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the appended drawings and claims.